Both are made from whipped eggs and caramel syrup. Why nougat is viscous and meringue is soft and can become dry and crunchy?
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Can anybody create "nougat", "meringue" and "confection" tags?– kelinCommented Mar 10, 2019 at 20:50
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2 Answers
The key difference is that Meringue is mixed/whipped sweetened egg whites; while nougat is sugar/honey mixed with egg whites and other ingredients (nuts)
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I just complement sayng that nougat can be soft (a bar with very chewy and viscous structure) and meringue be totally crispy although the whipping results il a light easy to crunch sponge. A natural ingredient at play is water, the content of which depends on the ratio of the other ones as well as cooking time. I.e. a relatively short cooking of nougat gives something chewy, a soft nougat. Prolonged cooking gives a very hard sometimes brittle nougat bar. Commented Mar 12, 2019 at 13:31
The basic difference is consistency: meringue tends to be lighter, airier, and drier, while nougat is more chewy.
This is achieved by different ratios of sugar to egg whites. Nougat has significantly more sugar in proportion to egg whites. (Compare this nougat recipe, ~4 cups sugar/honey to four egg whites, and this meringue recipe, 1/4 cup sugar to four egg whites.)
